A true atheist, by definition, is someone who doesnt put faith "in" a god. But I would argue that any true atheist is someone who embraces empiricism and accepts the fact that theism has never been disproven. And so admits the possibility exists that god is real. By my definition, which is in no way a stretch from the literal definition, an atheist admits he doesnt know whether or not God is real or not. He is uncertain... as any unbiased reasonable individual would be, who actually does place empiricism and logic on a pedestal. An atheist puts no more faith "in" god than he does "against" god. Those who opt for actual, active "disbelief" are anti-theists. Those are the types that reject the idea and the prospect off-hand. And usually are bigoted against theism and will actively criticize and argue against it without any real conclusive evidence. They will typically and self-righteously presume to be on the rational high-ground, rejecting a perfectly legit theory out of "distaste and contradiction with personal belief" and neither feel the need to back such claims nor find evidence supporting anti-theism. An agnostic... on the other hand... could theoretically be a theist, or an atheist, or an anti-theist for that matter. An agnostic is someone who believes no proof can exist. It makes no claims for or against God, in itself. It only asserts claims about evidence and knowledge of such things. Rarely will you find an anti-theist agnostic. Because in order to firmly believe, citing empiricism and reason as your sole source of strength, that God is unreal... one must admittedly have some confidence in the pseudo and inconclusive evidences that do exist. This is also why anti-theism is bigoted, because the inconclusiveness of the evidences at hand is ignored because of the conclusion it asserts. A theist does not reject science. But a theist also admits the importance of faith as an integral part of theism, and that faith cannot be measured empirically. This is why theism by its very nature isnt bigoted. But anti-theism, which cites empiricism and reason, but asserting truths that are uncertain as though they were, is by definition a bigoted belief system.

The words theist and atheist come from the ancient Greek for God: theos. From this we get 'theist' - someone who believes in God: Godist if you like. The 'a' in the front in the word 'atheist' denotes the opposite think of ..it's like the way we use non- or un- or im- e.g patient/impatient, sexual/asexual, believer/nonbeliever, etc. So 'atheist' at it's root means 'no God' - therefore an atheist is someone who doesn't believe there is a God: noGodist. Agnostic comes from the word 'gnosis' meaning 'knowledge'. The 'a' shows again an opposite. Therefore 'agnostic' means literally 'no knowledge'. We use this to mean someone who does not believe there is enough knowledge to either believe or disbelieve in God.

An atheist is someone who does not believe there is a God at all, not someone who says they aren't sure, or allows for the possibility of a God. Anyone who allows for the possibility agnostic.

good question. atheist believe there is no god. agnostic believes there is not enough information to determine if their is a god, or what happens after death, etc.